Heilbroner, Robert Louis

Heilbroner, Robert Louis hīl´brō˝nər [key], 1919–2005, American economist, b. New York City, grad. Harvard, 1940, Ph.D., New School for Social Research, 1963. A prolific writer, his book The Worldly Philosophers (1953, rev. 7th ed. 1999) is a renowned study of the evolution of economic thought. In his studies, Heilbroner sought to simplify economic theory by stripping it of technical jargon he criticized late-20th-century economists for not being sufficiently concerned with the social, political, and individual impact of their work. Heilbroner generally believed that government involvement in the economy should be minimized, but also supported government intervention to deal with capitalism's shortcomings and crises. He was long associated with the New School for Social Research (later New School Univ.), where he taught from the early 1960s into late 1990s.